I have had so many good Thanksgivings in my life. Some standouts were the two times I have done turkey trots and also the amazing food at Portland Thanksgiving, and also every Thanksgiving from when I was a kid because I would go to a friend's farm and there would be a massive potluck and we would play outside all day. These were all great Thanksgivings.
It's a bit hard to transplant a community, family, and friend-based holiday into a country where it doesn't really exist. I've had some good Thanksgivings in the UK, but the memories are more about nice times with friends that happen to happen around the end of November.
I think part of the awesomeness of American thanksgiving is that everyone seems to celebrate it in some way. Americans don't naturally have as many "we all do the same thing right now" times as British people do. I think British people rely on Christmas to be the "we are all together!" holiday. This seems a bit fraught to me, because Christmas means so many things to so many people.
Anyways, I love Thanksgiving. I love food and family and friends. Someday, I will do Thanksgiving in America again, and it will be great.
Yesterday, actual Thanksgiving, was spent mountain biking with Andy. We went to our local incredible bike park and rode trails all day while the kids were in school. It was great.
It reminded me of before kids time. Why did we not ride trails all day every day when we were in our 20s? What filled our heads before kids? What made us get up in the morning and decide which trail to ride, or not to ride? What did we *do* with all that time
Anyways, it was a good Thanksgiving. We rode almost 20 miles, were gone from 9am to 4pm, and we were both asleep by 9.
Today we are doing "Fakesgiving" and will have a turkey based Thanksgiving meal after the kids get home from school.
Some really random thankful things:
- Fakesgiving
- Getting a day of mountain biking with Andy
- Great friends I have here and in The States
- Being able to eat dairy (some people can't eat cheese, I'm glad I can)
- I will never have newborn twins on thanksgiving again (2023 *shudder*)
- Being done growing the family = I should have a lot more control of my own physical abilities for the years going forward (except for the chaos of aging and life).
There might be a day I can't ride up mountains. There might be a day I cannot eat a giant Thanksgiving meal. There will be a day I don't get continual baby and kid cuddles. Today is not that day. Thanks for Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving Rachel! I am glad that you got to go out and do something you love on this holiday, even if it was not spending time with your family here. Speaking of that, when is your Mom going to be there? And what did you do with all of those kids!? :)
ReplyDeleteHave a great Fakesgiving and eat lots of turkey! (I once spent Thanksgiving in Turkey and funny enough, I could not find a turkey to save my life, and so we had to eat chicken!)
We took a day off work so went when the kids were in all the childcare! I realized I have two types of holiday to use, holiday with the kids and holiday without! It was definitely fun to have a day off work and off kids...
DeleteLOL about Turkey! My mom is here now, she cooks the turkey for us. We have to use frozen turkey because the fresh ones don't get sold till Christmas!
There are fresh ones!? I think a lot of ours are sold frozen, even when it is the season. I think? I seem to recall always having issues making sure the bird is defrosted before the morning that it needs to be cooked (which are NOT always successful)!
DeleteIt sounds like a lovely Thanksgiving, Rachel, even if not quite as traditional as you were used to in the US. I think Christmas is definitely the "holiday of choice" in Europe where all families come together (religious or not!).
ReplyDeleteDaria from momofchildren.com
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written. As an immigrant I did not have Thanksgiving experience growing up but learned to love it when I was in the US as a college student.